Fred MacMurray Quotes

They sent me the first ‘Untouchables’ script, for instance, and I’m glad I didn’t do it. For one thing, it was practically a feature film, and for very little money. If I’d taken it, I’d have been faced with the job of turning them down on the series later.

We’re content to knock around the house.

I keep up to scratch on the sax.

When television first came on, it had all the comedy.

I’m really not that rich. I really don’t know how I got the reputation of being so loaded. Maybe my business manager started it. But I always say that I’m just rich enough that I don’t have to do a television series.

Maybe I’ve managed to keep my head above water through luck.

I don’t night-club, don’t get into fights or scandals, don’t own a yacht, don’t play the horses, don’t wear plaid overcoats, don’t go to Hollywood parties, don’t own a motorcycle, don’t run back and forth to New York, don’t go in for politics.

I saw a clown knock the head off another clown and I thought it was the real thing. It scared me so much, I made my mother take me home and I’ve dodged circuses ever since.

A beautiful woman is the best investment in marriage a man can make. And anybody who advises otherwise is talking sheer nonsense.

When I read some of the things other movie people say about their work, I think I’m in the wrong business. I don’t have any of those deep thoughts. I’m just myself.

When we were doing ‘My Three Sons,’ I appeared in the movie ‘The Apartment.’ I played a married businessman who kept a mistress on the side and treated her rather poorly. It was a good movie and a good role, and I thought it would be fun. But you should have seen the letters of protest I got over that.

I never went to acting school; when someone expounds on motivation and all that stuff, I don’t understand it. I was just lucky to be able to do what I did. When I started, people said I was very natural, which I guess is difficult for a lot of people to be.

You know pretty well that when you’re in a scene with a dog, everybody looks at him. I know I do.

I never could understand why Leslie Fenton gave up a soft touch in front of the camera to move behind it.

We spend a lot of time at the ranch. And June and I spend as much time as w can with the kids. I learned with my first two how fast they grow up.

I never wanted to be an actor. I only came to Hollywood to drive my mother out to visit my grandmother.

I nrver make the front pages or the gossip columns.

I want intelligence in my wife, but not too much she might see through me.

I was lucky enough to make four pictures with Barbara. In the first I turned her in, in the second I killed her, in the third I left her for another woman, and in the fourth I pushed her over a waterfall. The one thing all these pictures had in common was that I fell in love with Barbara Stanwyck – and I did, too.

I would never do comedy on TV.

I’ve had offers to do series on both radio and TV, but it s so much work and I’m lazy. I’d rather go fishing.

It was surprising for me to get out of town and have little kids ask for my autograph.

If we can show the good side of people, then why not?

I’m just a former saxophone player who got lucky.

I like hills and trees.

Sometimes a writer writes scenes for people who just say ‘Hi’ to indicate they’re in love. I play those scenes very well.

I’m Scottish, so I took care of my money.

June cooks, I cook and we have a girl who comes in to clean three days a week. We like that way of living. I suppose a lot of people think we can afford more, but we like it simple.

I don’t want the audience to tire of me too quickly. TV would be the fastest way to make them so sick of my face they’d never want to see it again.

How could I have known that murder can sometimes smell like honeysuckle?

I was a star before I got more than $250 a week. Carole Lombard advised me how to get a raise. She said: ‘Go to Palm Springs and stay there until they raise the ante.’ They were waiting to start a picture with me and I was scared they’d forget me for someone else, but they came after me.

Cooking is our hobby. We find recipes we like and then try to turn them into good meals. Most of the time our experimenting turns out pretty well. But sometimes we create lousy dinners.

I was fishing with director Frank Capra once and we talked about retirement.

I do enough pictures so I ran play golf and go up to my ranch once in awhile. This is what I worked towards when I began in this business in 1934.

You’ve got to admire my courage going into a picture where the dog is a star. It takes a brave man to play opposite one.

We’ve talked about doing a reunion of ‘My Three Sons,’ but I have an aversion to actors doing reunions.

I haven’t the knack of being colorful.

It’s nice to have people tell you they leave a movie theater without any problems.

Years ago my fans consisted almost strictly of adults.

I can remember various stages when I wanted to be an artist, a football coach, and a musician but never an actor. However, I’ll have to admit that now that I’m in this business I like it and would hate to have to give it up.

Why should I knock myself out as a producer when there’s as much money In acting – and fewer headaches.

I once asked Barbara Stanwyck the secret of acting. She said: ‘Just be truthful – and if you can fake that, you’ve got it made’.

A lot of actors say you can’t do both because people won’t pay to see you in movies when they get you for free on TV. So far it hasn’t hurt me.

I was born in Illinois, but I call Beaver Dam my home town. That’s where I graduated from high school and started what I thought was going to be a musical career.

I don’t want to do little theater or go on the road with a show.

You can’t go wrong with a Western. I made a string of them.

Any woman can make herself beautiful. I see ’em do it every day in the studio… with make-up and hair styles and curves added, that is. Science can do anything.

I’m not good on talk shows.

I just don’t care to work that hard.

I’m dull.

There’s a lack of tremendous pressure in the Disney studios. It’s a pleasant place to be.